Chapter 27

As the weeks of October flew by, Malachi, Cecil, and the other local teen were helping with the haunted house during the weekends. Johan keeps his word and helps Malachi, Cecil, and Jonathan with the making of their costumes. Jonathan and Jace help with the Halloween decorations and the trick-or-treat hunt. When hallows eve arrives, Jonathan drives them to the church. Malachi and Cecil grab their costumes so they can change into them later, and they go to help with the finishing touches of the haunted house. Jonathan heads to the kitchen from the side of the building since the main area was closed off due to the haunted house. He enters, seeing Johan and Jace working hard on making the food for the buffet; Jonathan grabs an apron and helps with the cooking. As the evening arrives, the food is ready, and town folk with their children start to appear. Jonathan, Malachi, and Cecil join the crowd of town folk dressed in their costumes. They lead everyone into the cafeteria, where everyone is greeted by the smell of food:

Johan gets in front of the crowd, and he and Jace are also dressed in their costumes. Jace quickly greets the crowd before exiting through one of the back doors into the church's backyard. Johan smiles softly at the guests:

" We'll take this back door and head into the cemetery, where the children will commence their hunt for the skull candies." Johan opens the door, letting the kids out. Jace stands to the side, watching the kids as they start their hunt; Johan turns to the teens, "You all may join the candy searching if you like; all I ask is you play fair and you're nice to the little ones. If not, either I or Jace will remove you, and you'll have to sit on the side with us, adults."

The teens nod and happily join the children in the candy hunt; the adults go outside, sitting on the benches, watching their children. Johan leaves, heading back inside; he comes back after a while with a basket of large skulls. He hands one to each parent, "I have something for you guys as well, more adult candies, chocolate, and goodies ."He smiles, "I hope you enjoy them." Once done, Johan stands with Jace and smiles, seeing the happiness on everyone's face. Jace turned, tilting his hat as to hide his face to sneak a kiss onto Johan's cheek. He fixes his hat as he leans against the fence again:

"You are quite amazing, my dear,"

Johan smiles, "Thank you. I tried; I just want everyone to enjoy themselves tonight. While they still can, we don't know what events will occur. There still .."Johan shakes his head, "Now's not the time to worry about that." Jonathan approaches, "Ok, I took the last of the food out of the oven; by the way, Johan, thank you."

Johan smiles, grabs the last large skull in the basket, and hands it to Jonathan, "It's for you; every parent gets one. And no need to thank just me, everyone, chip in. All thanks for everyone's efforts, and your Auguste Dupin costume looks amazing ."

"It's thanks to you, and your guy's costumes are amazing; surprisingly, Jace's rocking that skin-tight bodysuit."

Jace looks at Jonathan offended, "Suprisingly? What do you mean surprisingly?"

Jonathan smiles, "Thanks again," he joins the other parents on the benches watching Malachi and Cecil hunt for skull candies. When the hunt was over, Johan and Jace counted all the skulls the children collected to make sure every last skull had been collected; Johan smiled, "Alright, good job, everyone; all skulls have been collected and just in the nick of time. Let's head inside and enjoy the rest of the festivities. Both the buffet and haunted house are open for your enjoyment; we've also set up some game booths. I have lockers for you to stash your things; well, you have fun, and each locker has a lock and key, just in case you want to lock up your items." he gives a warm smile; everyone heads inside, and Jonathan approaches Johan, "But is the haunted house safe?"

Johan nods, "I had Miss Nia check out the haunted house and props, no dead bodies nor killers."

Jonathan blushes, "She's here?"

Johan says, "She's over at the buffer now serving a plate."

Jonathan bows his head, "Excuse me," causally wandering over to the buffet, grabbing a plate.

Jace approach Johan, "Smooth."

"I don't know what you're talking about, let me lock this back door to make sure we don't have unwanted guests sneaking in, and there are two guards at the other door we entered through, and the main doors are locked, and so are the windows. So everyone should be safe."

Jace kisses Johan, "Don't worry, I trust you; you're doing a wonderful job. By the way, what is the haunted house theme?"

"I don't know; the teens wanted it to be a surprise; the only ones who know are the teens and Miss Nia, so we'll have to find out ourselves. I do know it's bible-themed, "Johan puts his finger in quotation marks, "So religious adults don't get too upset," Johan laugh, "Quote the local teens."

Jace thinks, feeling a bit of worry but remembers that the boss gave it a good time to go, and he shakes his head free of worry. He takes Johan's hand and walks to the buffet with him. Cecil plays with the others, Malachi helps out in this haunted house, and Jace and Johan go around making their rounds and chatting with everyone before they sit on the side with their food, relaxing. After eating, Jonathan turned to Nia, "Would you like to go through the haunted house with me? You know, give it another sweep."

Nia smiles, "That's not a bad idea,"

Jace notices; he smiles, giving Jonathan a thumbs up, and grins; Jonathan shoots him a look before leaving the room. They approach Malachi; Malachi sees his dad with Nia, and a large smile forms, "Hi dad, miss Nia, the entrance is right, "There he says, pointing to a glowing entrance of large black tents filling the communion area of the church, "I hope you enjoy it!"'

Jonathan smiles, "Thank you, Malachi,"

Nia smiles, "Thank you, and I thought it was rather amazing you and the others did all this."

Malachi continued to smile, "Glad to hear that, enjoy"watching as they entered the tent, as he turned to the couple leaving the tents through the exit, "Thank you for coming. I hope you enjoy your time in the tents!"

Jace sits listening to the music as Johan leans against his arm; Johan has a small, relaxed smile, just so happy that everything is going so well. Glad everyone was having fun, Jace looks down, smiling, glad to see Johan so happy. Jonathan approaches Jace, "Jace can I talk to you for a moment," he keeps a calm expression, but the worry is in his eyes.

"Yeah, of course," Jace and Jonathan go into the kitchen, closing the door, "Waz up, Jonathan?"

"Have you seen the haunted house?"

"No, "Jace chuckled, "What? Did it actually scare you, or was it not very good, and you don't know how to tell Malachi and Cecil?'

"No, they did an amazing job; everything is fine except the theme is the seven deadly sins."

"It is?"

"Yes," Jonathan grips his head, "Am I overthinking it?"

"Yes and no; I had the same thought when Johan told me it was bible themed. But miss Nia checked it out, and their officers are here. And no bodies, right?"

"No, they look pretty good, but you can tell their props, and it's more Dante's inferno themed than Bosh."

Jace nods, "Then, as of right now, nothing to worry about; we'll keep a slight guard up and just continue having fun. In like an hour, Johan will let parents know it's time to get their kids and teens home. You can leave and maybe come back?" Jace looks at Jonathan with a questioning look:

"Yeah, I'll be back." he blushes, "I told Nia I'd be here tonight at the party."

Jace smiles, patting him on the back, "Look at you go; also, she is looking good tonight. I think she's wearing a bit of makeup,"

"she is wearing the faintest amount of perfume; she smells like cherry blossoms," he blushes a bit.

"Is she? Well, let go enjoy yourselves, " Jace leads Jonathan back out.

Sure enough, an hour later, Johan turns off the music, and Jace turns on some lights in the dimly lit areas; Johan gets in front of the crowd, "Attention! It is eight o'clock, and now time for all children and teens with their parents to head home. If any adult or parents wish to continue, all Hallows Eve be back at 9. Jace and I will be taking the opportunity to clean up. Tonight's party will be from 9 to midnight." Johan then goes opening the door; he makes sure the outside light is on. He thanks the two officers outside, "Ms. Nia wanted me to let you know that you are free to go home for the night, and if you wish, you can come back for the adult party at 9 pm. Thank you for your work and services."He offers them a warm smile; the officers tip their hats to him and leave with everyone else. Johan waves, watching everyone leave; he heads inside, he closes the door behind him.

Jace approaches, "Luckily, the mess is not too bad; it seems parents did a good job making sure the kids clean up after themselves. Plus, you had the brilliant idea to use plastic silverware, cups, and plates. We do have to do a bit of sweeping, take out the trash, clean up the buffet table, and set out the rest of the food; it will take a few minutes then. We can check out the haunted house. I heard the boys and others did an amazing job."Jace grins, pulling Johan close; he leans into Johan's ear, whispering, "And perhaps we can have some fun of our own."

Johan pulls away, blushing, "Jace, this is a church of god, not horniness!"

"Can you blame me? Not every day I get to be alone in a church with a smoking hot priest in a church." he looks, trying to give Johan puppy dog eyes.

Johan squints at him but then sighs, "I'll think about it; let's get started."

Jonathan drives home with Malachi and Cecil, "Did you boys have fun?"

"Yes! The food was so good, the haunted house was so cool, and the candies in the skull-shaped holders were awesome. It was my idea. Did you know that, dad?"Cecil exclaims with a shine of happiness in his eyes.

Jonathan smiles, "Oh really?" he looks at Cecil's smiling face, "Well, that was quite an amazing idea!"

Cecil smiles happily, examing his skull-shaped candy holders; Jonathan looks at Malachi through the rearview mirror, "and you?"

"Yeah, it was really fun; thank you for letting us do this, dad."Jonathan smiles more, "Thank you both for setting it up.."

Malachi gives his father inquisitive look, "Are you going to the adult party at 9?"

"I am,"

Cecil gets a cheeky smile, "Are you gonna see and spend time with Nia?"

Malachi smiles, "Oh! Miss Nia."

The boys grinned more, "Oh, miss Nia!" They say at the same time.

Jonathan tsks, shooting his sons a look from the review mirror.